LL-L "Phonology" 2004.11.11 (08) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 11.NOV.2004 (08) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Henry Pijffers <henry.pijffers at saxnot.com>
Subject: Orthography

I can think of at least 1 example in my dialect that would merrit z and
s being two distinct phonemes:

zupen - supen (to drink heavily - soups)

The only difference in pronunciation here is that "zupen" is pronounced
with /z/, whereas "supen" is pronounced with /s/.

Doesn't this mean that in fact an orthography for my dialect would need
both z and s?

regards,
Henry

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

Henry,

Thanks for the question above.  Don't mind me responding already!  :-)

Originally -- "natively" -- the language has only /z/ before a vowel.
Loanwords come to be treated differently until they are "fully nativized,"
as has happened in the case of German (French _soupe_ >) _Suppe_ ['zUp@] (->
pl. _Suppen_), versus non-nativized examples such as _Soufflé_ [suf'le:],
and optional degrees of nativization as in (English _synthesizer_ >)
_Synthesizer_ ['sInT at saIzA] ~ ['sIns at saIzA] ~ ['zYnt at saIzA] ~ ['zYnt at zaIzA],
usually transitionally in newer loans.  Because such words are lexically
marked as either native or non-native, and non-native words are fairly rare,
the orthography is not considered in need of reform on this basis.

It is usually when loanwords of this sort bring about a change in the native
phoneme inventory that orthographic differentiation is considered necessary
(<z-> vs <s->), as happened in English and Dutch under heavy French
influence.

In the case of Lowlands Saxon, the question is if few marked occurrences of
prevocalic /s-/ in a handful of dialects should require the entire language
to give up the conventional spelling <s-> before vowels, where the vast
majority of occurences, all native, would come to be spelled with a <z>
(which in Germany is connected with the pronunciation [ts]).

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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